BASF says very difficult to find suitable buys

German chemicals group BASF, the world's top chemical company by sales, is finding it extremely difficult to identify acquisition targets that generate value, board member Eggert Voscherau told Reuters on October 06.
"Any acquisition for BASF has to be value generating. To find a value generating acquisition with the portfolio BASF has is damn difficult," Voscherau, deputy head of BASF's management board, said in an interview.
BASF has said in the past that it will not look at big acquisitions, and Voscherau said that this was because generating value and creating suitable fit with big acquisitions was even more difficult.
Asked if BASF was looking at acquiring British industrial gas maker BOC, as speculated in British media reports, Voscherau said, "We want to stay a chemical company".
He said BASF aimed to raise productivity at its production sites.
"Our aim is to increase productivity by 3-5 percent per year on average.
We started benchmarking with Dow, and the chemical sites of Shell, then amongst our own plants," Voscherau continued.